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Great British trail runs: escapes from the city

These routes, extracted from a new book, Wild Running: 150 adventures on the trails and fells of Britain, prove that you need not travel hundreds of miles into the wilderness to escape the crush and smog of urban life. Its authors, Jen and Sim Benson, highlight the best places to hit the running trails near Britain's biggest cities. -- Escape from…London: the South Downs Stretching across the country's south-eastern coastal counties from the Itchen Valley in the west to Beachy Head in the east, the South Downs, crowned by the 100-mile long-distance trail of the South Downs Way, make for fantastic running. Early morning is the time to run here: our choice is the final stretch alongside the Seven Sisters, springy turf underfoot with a backdrop of the iconic white cliffs against a glittering sea. Buy Wild Running from Telegraph Books
Read more: National Park focus: the South Downs
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